NEW DELHI: Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky's advisor Mykhailo Podolyak described Indians and Chinese as having 'weak intellectual potential' on Wednesday. However, after the Ukrainian foreign ministry disassociated itself from the comment, he took a U-turn.
"What’s wrong with India, China, Turkey and so forth. The problem is that they are not analysing the consequences of their steps, these countries have weak intellectual potential, unfortunately. Yes, they invest in science. Yes, India has launched a lunar rover presently and is now trekking on the surface of the Moon, but that does not indicate that this country fully comprehends what the modern world is about," said Podolyak.
While India didn’t respond to his comments, the Ukrainian Embassy in Delhi responded by saying that they do not endorse his view.
"These are Podolyak’s personal thoughts. This is not an official position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the office of the President of Ukraine," said a Ukrainian spokesperson in Delhi.
Meanwhile, a few hours after making the statement in a video interview, Podolyak shared a cryptic message on his Twitter handle accusing Russia of misconstruing his statement.
"Classic Russian propaganda – take it out of context, distort the meaning, scale it up to separate target audiences with conflict provocation. Of course Turkey, India, China and other regional powers are increasingly and clearly justified in claiming global roles in modern world – and there are all the reasons for this: historical, economic, cultural, scientific and political. And these roles have long been much more extensive than Russia’s. But the global world is much broader than even the most thoughtful regional national interests. The global world is based on stability and predictability, on rationality and strategy, on international law and clear rules of the game," he said.
Earlier, Ukraine, after the New Delhi Declaration, had said that 'G20 has nothing to be proud of'.
"G20 adopted a final declaration. We are grateful to the partners who tried to include strong wording in the text. However, in terms of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, G20 has nothing to be proud of," said Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko.